Stormy Night
by superlc529
Summary: A bad storm causes Henry and Jo to be stranded at a motel and there is only one room left... a tender moment is shared between the two. Mortinez friendship.


A/N: This is my first foray (hopefully of many) into the _Forever_ fandom. I LOVE this show so much and I had this little one-shot idea when going to bed one night. I hope you all like it and I do it justice.

Stormy Night

Thunder rumbled among the black clouds. Lightning bolts lit up the sky in succession and rain poured down on the Earth below. A lone car made its way down the road with a New York City detective and Chief Medical Examiner inside coming back from an arrest of yet another killer they caught.

The only sound heard in the car was the whooshing of the wipers against the windshield. Detective Jo Martinez had her full attention on the road. Another loud clap of thunder sounded in the sky causing Doctor Henry Morgan to flinch.

He turned to Jo, "I think maybe we should pull off to the side of the road a moment until the storm passes or at least slows down."

"Scared of a little thunder are we?" Jo teased.

"No," Henry shook his head, but soon flinched again when lightning lit up the sky.

"I'm a very good driver. You have nothing to worry about," Jo assured him, continuing on, "We're not that far from the city… maybe just a couple more miles."

"All the same, I feel that we should pull over for a moment," Henry repeated, "Even the best of drivers can lose control with slick roads and low visibility."

"Henry," Jo was starting to lose her patience with the doctor, "If we pull over, it'll take longer to get home and I'm already operating on what little sleep I was able to get after this case."

"Yet another reason to stop. You're tired," Henry wasn't giving up.

"I'm fine. We're almost home. Now I'd appreciate it if you'd just stop talking until we make it back into the city," Jo gripped the steering wheel harder and made a show of concentrating on the road further.

Henry sunk back into the passenger seat, resigning to her request. A moment later, however, lightning struck the road right in front of them causing Jo to slam on her brakes. The car spun around. Henry lashed his arm out protectively in front of Jo as they spun. Tires screeching on the wet pavement, the car came to a halt in the mud on the side of the road.

"Are you all right?" Henry still had his arm raised protectively in front of the detective.

Jo nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay… you?"

"Fine," Henry retracted his arm. Jo let out a breath and tried to get back on to the road. The tires spun uselessly in the mud gaining no traction and then the engine conked out. Pouring rain on the car was the only sound heard in the car until Jo broke the silence, "Not a word, Henry."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Henry promised her.

Jo got out her phone and raised it up to see if there was any reception, "No bars… of course. And you don't own a cell phone."

"I can try and push the car out of the mud back on to the road if you want," Henry offered.

"Even in neutral, I think we're too far in the mud to get back on the road without a tow truck. You're not Superman," Jo said, "I thought I saw a rest stop sign back there before the lightning struck that said there was a motel about a mile down the road. Maybe I can make my way down there and call for some help."

"Not by yourself you're not," Henry objected, "I'm coming with you. It's very late and storming."

"I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself," Jo said, "Or do you just not want to be alone with the storm?"

"Little bit of both," Henry admitted.

"Come on," Jo started to open her door, "With any luck we can make good time in the rain."

They both got out of the car. The rain was still coming down in buckets and lightning continued to light up the sky with a clap of thunder every now and again. Henry grabbed Jo's hand as they met at the front of the car and they helped each other trudge out of the mud back on to the road and to safety.

* * *

><p>About a mile down the road, Jo and Henry finally made it to the small motel and out of the torrential downpour. Drenched to the bone, they made their way inside. They sloshed their way up to the receptionist's desk. Jo flashed her badge at the woman at the desk, "Can we use your phone?"<p>

"Sure," the receptionist handed Jo the phone.

"Thanks," Jo accepted the receiver and dialed.

_After a few rings, Hanson finally answered his phone, "Hanson."_

"Hanson, it's Jo," Jo started, "We were on our way back from the arrest of our killer and ran into the storm. We slid off the road and got stuck in the mud…"

_Hanson cut her off before she could continue, "Jo, stop… a lot of the roads have been closed due to the storm. There's some flooding. Wherever you two are, you're stuck for the night."_

"The roads are closed? Are you sure?" Jo repeated for Henry's benefit.

"_Sorry, Jo, I'll see if I can send out a tow truck tomorrow morning for you, but right now you and the Doc are stuck," Hanson apologized._

"Thanks anyway, Hanson. I'll see if I can get you our location in the morning," Jo said.

"_We can ping your location from the tracer in your police car, Jo. Try to have a good night," Hanson replied._

"Right… 'Night, Hanson," Jo hung up.

"So?" Henry looked expectantly at Jo.

"As you heard, the roads are closed… we're stuck here until morning until the storm passes," Jo said.

"Perhaps we should try to get a room for the night then," Henry stepped up closer to the desk and spoke up to get the receptionist's attention, "Pardon me, two rooms for the night please."

The receptionist, "DJ" her nametag read, looked up, "We've only got one vacancy tonight."

"Sorry, what?" Jo's head jerked up at the same time Henry said, "Pardon me?"

"We only have one room available tonight. We don't have many rooms to begin with. We're a small motel, but with many luxuries… Take it or leave it," DJ had the decency to try to at least look apologetic.

"We'll take it," Jo held out her hand. DJ handed her the key marked Room 4 on it. She started to make her way out of the reception area to their room when she noticed Henry hadn't moved, "You coming, Henry?"

"Just a moment, I need to phone Abe to let him know what's going on," Henry explained.

"In that case, you can pay for the room," Jo smiled at him. At his furrowed eyebrows, she continued, "Hey, if you can afford all those fancy suits, you can afford a motel room for one night. Meet you in there."

"Pushy girlfriend," DJ smirked.

"She's not my girlfriend. We're friends," Henry corrected her and held out his hand for use of the phone. DJ gave him a non-believing nod and handed him the phone as she did for Jo a moment before.

_After a few rings, Abe picked up, "Hello?"_

"Abe? It's Henry," Henry started.

"_Don't tell me you drowned out there," Abe was only half-teasing._

"Very funny, Abraham," Henry rolled his eyes, "No. Jo and I were on our way back to the city and got caught in the storm. To make a long story short, we're sort of stranded until morning when the storm passes and the roads open up again."

"_Stranded where?" Abe asked._

"A motel on the outskirts of the city," Henry answered.

"_With the detective, huh?" Abe started to tease his father, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do… have a good night, Henry."_

"Good night, Abraham," Henry hung up shaking his head. He handed the desk phone back to DJ, got out his wallet and paid for the room. Then he made his way to his and Jo's room for the night.

* * *

><p>Never having lost his manners over the centuries, Henry knocked on Room 4's door and came inside after hearing Jo's, "Come on in, Henry."<p>

"How'd you know it was me? I could've been a vandal," Henry shut the door and locked it once he was inside.

"Most vandals don't knock," Jo smirked at him, drying her hair. In the short time Henry was calling Abe, she took a few towels to dry as much of herself as she could.

"Good point," Henry took off his suit jacket and hung it up by the door, sloshing his way inside the room further.

"You should probably try to towel off too," Jo threw a couple dry towels his way, "Don't want to catch a cold."

"Thank you," Henry took the towels and started to dry his hair. They stood in companionable silence for a moment, standing on opposite sides of the room.

"Well, we should probably hit the sack," Jo broke the silence, taking off her shoes.

"You should probably take off your clothes," Henry started. Jo froze and widened her eyes; Henry was quick to elaborate, "Uh, that is, I mean… using the towels can only do so much to dry our clothes…"

"I get what you mean, Henry, thank you," Jo put her hand up, stopping him. But it didn't stop him from turning beat red.

"You should do the same then," Jo started to ramble, "I wouldn't want to see you get sick over trying to be a gentleman. We're both adults. We're friends. I think we can handle seeing each other in our underwear. There's a fireplace over there where we can try to dry our clothes. You know, for a cheap motel, they have quite a lot of stuff in here."

"Good idea, we can dry our things that way. I'll just get some blankets and if you'll lend me a pillow, I'll take the…," Henry trailed off, not seeing a couch, he finished, "floor."

"No you won't," Jo objected, "You're just as tired as I am and what kind of friend would I be if I made you sleep on the floor? Like I said, we're adults. We're friends. We can share the bed. It's queen sized anyway. We're just sleeping."

"Right," Henry nodded. Another extremely loud clap of thunder echoed outside, rattling the windows of the motel a little and caused Henry to jump.

"And that way I can comfort you from the storm," Jo tried to add a little levity to the situation.

* * *

><p>Henry got the fire in the fireplace started. Ever the gentleman, he went to the bathroom as Jo stripped down to her bra and underwear, leaving her clothes hung in front of the fire to dry them. She slipped under the covers and called out to Henry to come out. She turned out the lights already to give Henry some privacy as he did the same, just left in his boxers. Slowly, he got in the bed and stared up at the ceiling.<p>

"Good night, Detective," Henry closed his eyes.

Lying on her side, facing away from Henry, Jo echoed him, "Good night, Henry."

* * *

><p>Jo's eyes snapped open when she felt Henry tossing and turning next to her and mumbling something in his sleep. She looked at the clock on the desk next to the bed and saw that they at least managed to get at least a couple of hours sleep. And she intended to get more. Turning around, she held herself up by her elbow, "Henry? Henry, wake up."<p>

"No… no…," Henry was still having a nightmare.

Trying again, she sat up and started to gently shake him, "Henry, you're having a nightmare. Wake up."

"I cannot let you do this," Henry continued to thrash around, his eyes tightly shut.

"Henry!" Jo shook him a little more roughly.

"NO!" Henry shot up, waking up. Catching his breath and getting his bearings, he turned to Jo, "Jo? Jo, I'm terribly sorry."

"You okay? Quite a nightmare you were having there," Jo was concerned.

"I'm fine… just something that happened to me a long time ago," Henry admitted.

"Sounded like you were protecting somebody," Jo put a hand on his shoulder. They were both sitting up in the bed now.

"What'd I say?" Henry was weary as ever.

"You said something about not letting somebody do something," Jo told him.

"Oh," Henry closed his eyes to collect himself further. He was dreaming about his first death. The storm outside was starting to settle down, but it must've triggered a memory of being on the slave ship.

"You want to talk about it?" Jo asked, more sleep forgotten over concern of her best friend.

"Not really," Henry was still guarded.

"It'd help," Jo tried to get him to open up, "You know, I'm no psychiatrist, but it sounds to me like this is a recurring nightmare. Maybe talking about it might help. If not with me, maybe you should talk about it with Abe."

Henry could practically hear his son's voice in his head urging him to just tell Jo the truth about himself already. She was understanding about Adam when he told her the truth about him, well, most of the truth about him.

"_She's not Nora," Henry thought, "You need to start trusting again. You can trust __**her**__."_

Jo started to lie back down, taking Henry's prolonged silence as him not wanting to talk about it. He laid down next to her, both of them facing the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, Henry began, "It's a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere," Jo was ready to listen.

"It has to do with my scar," Henry started, subconsciously touching the scar on his chest.

"Yeah, you told me that you had been shot," Jo turned her head to face him. He turned his head to face her as well.

"I was shot… I was protecting a man from being thrown overboard a ship," Henry explained.

"Very noble. I'd expect nothing less from you, Henry," Jo smiled, turning on her side to face him. He mirrored her position. They were face to face lying on their sides. She furrowed her brow. Tentatively, she reached out her hand to his chest. Henry gave her a small nod, signaling it was okay to touch the scar.

"But… it looks like it's right above your heart," Jo gently stroked his scar, "How'd you survive?"

Henry opened his mouth, to tell her the truth, that he hadn't survived, but it just didn't feel right. He'd tell her one day, but not tonight, "A story for another night, Detective."

"Fair enough," Jo smiled, retracting her hand. Henry closed his eyes, silently berating himself for chickening out once again to let her in – afraid of rejection, fear, and still the weight of his secret bearing down on his shoulders.

The next thing he felt was the feel of a small peck on his cheek.

"What was that for?" Henry opened his eyes. They could just about see each other from the light of the fire, slowly ebbing away through burning during the night.

Jo shrugged her shoulder, "You just looked like you needed it… You always look like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"Sometimes it feels like it," Henry let out a sigh.

"One day you'll let me in," Jo echoed herself from a few weeks prior, rolling back on to her back, "When you're ready… I'll be ready to listen."

"Thoroughly appreciated, Jo," Henry also rolled back over. Outside, the storm sounded off in the distance, the morning sunlight slowly shining in through the window. They slowly both drifted off back to sleep. In their sleep, Henry reached out for Jo's hand and she accepted it, their fingers interlacing. They inched closer to each other, their bare shoulders touching. It was the best sleep Henry had in almost a century. He had the comfort that Jo was there for him and he was there for her… forever.

THE END

A/N: I hope you liked it and the ending there wasn't too cheesy or to fluffy… but I couldn't help it. The first way I wrote it was Henry telling her the truth about his immortality, but after re-reading it, it just didn't feel right. So I re-wrote it to him not telling her and yet again Jo being patient for Henry to let her in. I do ship Mortinez, but it is wayyyy too early in their relationship for anything more. That'll happen later. For now, they're partners and best friends. Please read and review! Let me know how I did! Mortinez Forever!


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